New Delhi, January 29: Election Commission on Wednesday ordered the removal of Anurag Thakur and Parvesh Sahib Singh from the list of star campaigners of Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) for Delhi Assembly elections with immediate effect. The EC order has come in the wake of their instigating remarks during poll campaign.
The EC issued show-cause notice to Union Minister Anurag Thakur over his ‘Desh Ke Gaddaro..’ chant and gave him time till 12 pm on 30th January to submit his reply to the poll panel.
Delhi’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) has sought a report from the returning officer of Rithala constituency over Anurag Thakur’s speech at an election rally during which crowd raised an incendiary slogan “traitors should be shot”.
In the rally, Thakur egged on the crowd to raise the slogan after he lashed out at anti-CAA protestors.
Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma also created controversy with his comments against the anti-CAA protesters at Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh saying they will be cleared in an hour if the BJP comes to power in Delhi. He also stated lacing his comments with a sensational remark, “They will enter your houses, rape your sisters and daughters”.
Verma further said, “It is an election to decide the unity of a nation. If the BJP comes to power on February 11, you will not find a single protester within an hour. And within a month, we will not spare a single mosque built on government land.”
On Tuesday, a delegation of the Congress party moved the Election Commission seeking a ban on campaigning by Anurag Thakur and Parvesh Varma for making “provocative statements” to incite “communal violence” and breaching the Model Code of Conduct ahead of the Delhi Assembly election.
In a report to the ECI on Tuesday, the Chief Electoral Officer of Delhi said that Thakur raised the slogan `Desh Ke Gaddaro Ko, Goli Maaro Saalo Ko` (shoot the traitors) several times while addressing a public meeting here in Rithala on January 27.
The voting for the Delhi Assembly is scheduled to take place on February 8. The counting will begin on February 11.
